December 12, 2013

Boston Business Journal

52 Mass. tech companies on IPO path, report finds

Massachusetts is headquarters to 52 equity-funded technology companies which potentially have the ingredients for an IPO, a report from CB Insights found.

The New York-based firm maintains a database of venture capital deals as well as Moasic, a service which provides insights into private company health using various signals — such as human resources, industry health and investor quality — and applies algorithms to the data.

CB Insights says a total of 590 U.S. companies with venture capital and/or private equity backing are in the "IPO pipeline." Those companies have valuations (real or rumored) of more than $100 million and "are demonstrating significant momentum" based on ratings generated by Mosaic, the firm said.

CB Insights did not name any of the 52 Massachusetts companies which are in the IPO pipeline, but did provide a breakdown by industry:

56 percent are Internet companies (which include e-commerce, ad tech, business intelligence/analytics and a number of other subindustries)

15 percent fall into mobile and telecommunications

13 percent are in computer hardware and services

13 percent fall under non-Internet/mobile software

2 percent are in electronics

California has the most companies in CB Insights' tech IPO pipeline, with 308, while New York ranks second with 61 companies and Massachusetts ranks third.

Among the top-funded Massachusetts tech companies are a number which have hinted at the possibility of an IPO in coming years. They include home goods e-tailer Wayfair, caregiver services marketplace Care.com, video advertising software firm Extreme Reach, data storage technology firm Actifio and inbound-marketing software firm HubSpot.